“Silence has been an essential element of my percussion playing since the very beginning. Developing sounds out of silence, fading into silence, stopping a cymbal crescendo to let the silence explode into space. These were some of the elements I used a lot, and I still do. Then I met John Cage, who wrote a piece for me. One of his number pieces -one4- , and depending on how you deal with the given elements and performance rules, you end up with a lot more silence than I was used to. Silence that makes you listen, silence that makes you think. Silence that can frighten you, but also silence that gives you peace, and hope... Sergio Armaroli is a percussionist/composer who has given much more than just a thought or two to silence. He has made an extensive research on composing techniques, and improvising concepts. He has explored all possible ways to deal with silence and he has put these reflections into the concept pieces of STRUCTURING THE SILENCE. Playing with him, and creating silence with him was both a pleasure, and a challenge: Silence is an endless ocean, sound is the vessel to travel on it...”Fritz Hauser

Born 1953 in Basel/Switzerland, Fritz Hauser develops soloprograms for drums and percussion which he performs worldwide. Cross-media works with dancer/choreographer Anna Huber, with architect Boa Baumann as well as with director Barbara Frey. Compositions for percussion ensembles and soloists, sound installations (a.o. Therme Vals), radio plays, music for films and readings. In the field of improvised music he has worked together with numerous musicians: Urs Leimgruber, Joëlle Léandre, Marilyn Crispell, Christy Doran, Pauline Oliveros, Lauren Newton, Patrick Demenga a.o. Since the Stockholm International Percussion Event 1998 he has been collaborating with different percussion groups and soloists around the world: Kroumata, Synergy Percussion, Nexus, Speak Percussion, Keiko Abe, Steven Schick, Bob Becker, Michael Askill a.o. Numerous CDs as soloist and with various groups.